... Instead of the discus, balance beam, and sappy television coverage, the contestants in the Polish Astronomical Olympiad face off against occultation timing, astrophotography, and astrophysical calculations. ...
... Small telescopes, equipped with technology that make them the equal of the largest telescopes only a decade ago, excel at tackling variable stars, occultations, redshift surveys, calibration work, and education. ...
... The country has about 30 public observatories. Amateurs have produced meaningful data concerning comets, meteors, occultations, and variable stars. ...
... South African amateurs participate in international programs, including the IOTA planetary-occultation observations and the American Association of Variable Star Observers. ...
... These may be, for instance, "Give the times exact to 1 second of stellar occultations by the Moon observed at your place," or "Take a photograph of Polaris and measure the angular distance from the northern pole." ...
... That remained the situation until the 1960s, when astronomer David Dunham popularized observations of grazing occultations of stars by the Moon ? ...